Zoo Tycoon Hideout
Zoo Tycoon Hideout (Briefly The Hideout) was a Zoo Tycoon fansite that was founded by JVM on March 16th 2006, and was one of the longest continuously open and updating Zoo Tycoon fansites, and was the first to feature an active arcade and dedicated chat system. It was also among the first to focus on Zoo Tycoon 2 and to contain exclusive downloads for either game. It was notorious for its relatively low activity. The last iteration of the site opened on November 2nd, 2011 until August 18, 2014, and has since been deleted by Tapatalk Groups. It's assets are currently available at Zoo Tycoon Volcano, its longtime affiliate. History ZTH was initially a prosperous site, with over one thousand members, many visting frequently, and multiple active staff members including Kodiak, Zooasaurus Rex, King Hoopla, Panda Lover and Redpanda Rex. There were many exclusive downloads, such as the Prehistoric Theme Packs and Shark Packs. In mid-2007, Zooasaurus' site Zoo Tycoon Volcano, which had been inactive, saw a significant surge in activity, involving many of the same staff members and downloads being shared at both sites. With other staff members attending to personal duties, this lead to a decline in activity at Zoo Tycoon Hideout. From March 12th to May 30th, 2008, Zoo Tycoon Hideout was briefly merged with founder JVM's generalized personal site to form The Hideout, and the site membership doubled in only a month. The separate staff teams for both sites did not work well together, however; the original Zoo Tycoon Hideout was converted to ZetaBoards, before any other Zoo Tycoon site on the web, and reopened. The lack of popularity for the new forum software lead to a new incarnation on InvisionFree, forcing it to move once again. Throughout this period and on, the only active members were staff positions. On February 5th, 2010, ZTH was attacked by an unidentified shock spammer who accessed administrator Death Raptor's account. Some reports erroneously blamed Darkpkmn, but the spammer's exact identity was never confirmed. The site was closed again on August 15th, 2010, and administrator JVM left the community for a period shortly later, resigning from his staff position at Zoo Tycoon Volcano a few months later on November 8th, 2010. The final incarnation of the site debuted on November 2nd, 2011, solely as a site for JVM to continue releasing his creations for download, and this version boasted many new features such as a chat system, an arcade, and like/dislike buttons. Former exclusives were re-uploaded and new ones released weekly. As conflicts within the administration that began to pour out on other sites, the ZTHR era staff team was demoted en mass in summer 2014 and the site closed permanently soon after. When JVM received control of ZT2 Designing Centre in August 2014, he closed the Zoo Tycoon Hideout archive to transfer what meaningful content (downloads and tutorials) remained to ZTDC; much of this content was eventually moved to Zoo Tycoon Volcano instead. The original site remains online as an archive and was converted to Tapatalk Groups, while the later incarnations were deleted. Membership Staff Members The site's founder and only permanent staff member was John, or JVM, a longtime member of the community, who has described his own contributions as "zilch". He produced the majority of the exclusive downloads for the site. King Hoopla was the site's first co-administrator, a position he held for over a year, releasing his earliest prehistoric downloads as exclusives. Zooasaurus was a staff member during much of the same period, releasing multiple projects. As their focus grew to ZTV, they both became inactive and were demoted to former staff ranks. Panda Lover was a notable long-term staff member, known for his friendly demeanor and work in the role-playing games section of the sites. He was a budding designer when his activity declined, but he returned more than once. He was close with fellow moderator Redpanda Rex. Death Raptor, former admin at Zoo Kingdom, was a co-administrator for a period, working on many technical modifications for the site, but fell out of favor when his account was breached in a hacking incident. Jenra, founder of Zookeeper's Hangout, was a moderator as well. "Can't Tell" Can't tell was a guest that posted in guest forums of ZTV, Stalker's Ranch and ZTH. He was considered a troll by The majority of the ZT community. He claimed to be working on a pack called Horrifying Dinosaurs but was IP banned from ZTH and Stalker's Ranch. He had often insulted Black rhino ranger. He has not been seen in several years. Intersite Relations ZTH had always maintained a close relationship with Zoo Tycoon Volcano due to similar roots and many shared staff. ZTH was also affiliated with Caldera Unlimited, Cascata and Zoo Kingdom. ZTH was also long affiliated with Zoo Tycoon Breakout and the original Zoo Tycoon Extinction. Downloads The site had an extensive number of downloads throughout its existence for both Zoo Tycoon and Zoo Tycoon 2, and for several years became home to Zoo Tycoon Volcano and Caldera Unlimited's equally extensive download libraries. These downloads were often held beyond a posting threshold (ten at lowest, fifty at highest) to encourage activity, but this requirement largely lead to spam and pointless posts. The site at one point held official links to most released user expansions for Zoo Tycoon 2, including the Mesozoic Packs, Arabian Nights, Island Excursions, Blue Planet, Operation Genesis, Enormous Elephants, Destination South America, Miocene Madness, Jurassic Park Pack and Unidentified, as well as briefly Worldwide Wonders (removed for containing glitches) and Fiction or Reality (removed at Murdock129's request) It had a short-lived design team, Designers of the Hideout, which began work on an expansion entitled Lost Treasures. The team's main artist revealed several models and skins publicly before disappearing, so the three completed animals were released separately as recolors, and the larger pack was scuttled. John also possessed, and intended to complete, the unfinished versions of the user expansions Worldwide Wonders, Reptile Rage, Wild Wings, and more, all of which were intended to be fixed and repaired. Lacking a team to locate and repair these glitches, they were never completed for release at the site. All of these downloads are now hosted at Zoo Tycoon Volcano, though some links have been lost over the years; in particular, many of the creations originally hosted on Savefile and Divshare have completely disappeared. Exclusives The site's exclusives were mostly developed by JVM, or by members of design teams he participated in, User eXpansion Team, Worldwide Designers United, and the Mysterious Map Marvels: * Ball Python * Giganotosaurus * Entelodon * Afrovenator * Megalosaurus * Carcharodontosaur Pack ** Carcharodontosaurus ** Carcharodontosaurus (JPOG version) * Spinosaurus by Lordoftheworms * Dracorex * JP Velociraptor Pack * Gray Reef Shark * Ornithomimdae Premium Pack * Mhorr Gazelle * Wooden Information Sign * Dusky Dolphin * Placeable Butterfly * Common Pheseant * Mexican Grizzly Bear * Deep Oceans Pack ** Blue Whale ** Colossal Squid ** Sperm Whale ** New Zealand White Shark ** Double-Tusked Narwhal * Loch Ness Map * Adasaurus * Low Glass Fences * Atlantic Spotted Dolphin * Dire Wolf * Western Lowland Gorilla * Western Black Rhinoceros (Lost Treasures) * North African Elephant (Lost Treasures) * Cownose Ray * Steller's Sea Cow * Rad River Dolphins **Amazon River Dolphin **Bolivian River Dolphin **Indus River Dolphin **Ganges River Dolphin **Yangzte River Dolphin **La Plata Dolphin Link *Original Site (still online as an archive) *Google Site *Second to Final Site (deleted by Tapatalk) *Final Site (deleted by Tapatalk) category: Fansites